Room 17
by FoxoftheDesert
Summary: RedQueen Short Story - Granny has a request for Ruby requiring her to visit Room 17 in the B&B. What she discovers there is something she could never have prepared herself for.
1. Discovery

**Intro Notes** : Hello again, folks. I'm back with a two shot, and this one was a bit of a change of pace for me. One I wrote it in present tense, but second, it's kinda heavy on the angst. I apologize in advance for what you're about to read, but I couldn't help it. It came out of nowhere to possess me and distract me from my other works! In any case, part two tomorrow. Hope you guys don't tar and feather me.

 **Standard Disclaimer** : The characters ain't mine, I'm just borrowing their strings for a while, so don't sue me please! Please point out any errors in grammar or spelling privately and I will correct them.

Chapter 1 - Discovery

Ruby is exhausted. Letting out a prolonged groan, she stretches and then rubs at the weary muscles in her back in an effort to relieve the ever-present ache that has been there for the past three hours. Having almost completed yet another excruciating 12-hour shift, she is wishing for nothing more than to simply get off her feet for a few minutes, but as she watches another handful of customers filter through the door of the diner, she knows her wish is just not possible. Sighing, she picks up her order pad and mentally prepares herself to do her job, thankful at least that her day is almost over. Only an hour and half to go.

As the customers settle in to their respective choice of tables, Ruby allows herself another moment of indulgence. Lifting her eyes to the ceiling, they slide shut as she begins to fantasize about what she'll do once she gets back home. Per usual, her first priority will be to run a steaming hot bath and then sink into it for at least a good half hour, and although she will have to be very careful to not allow her hair to get wet, it is highly likely that she will fall asleep in the tub. It is not unusual at all for her to do so. Ever since moving in with Regina some seven years ago, Ruby has found it difficult not to doze in the luxuriously roomy tub. There is just something about basking in the delicious warmth of the water that lulls her under as it soothes the discomfort of the day away, and she is particularly susceptible to the effect in cases like today when the diner has been super busy and she's had to deal with a combination of high stress and near constant movement.

Once her bath is over – however long it takes – all that will remain is to dry off as quickly as possible, throw on some panties and comfortable t-shirt and then to crawl into bed. Ruby is quite certain that the noises she will make as she settles into the cool silken sheets will be provocatively sinful in nature and loud enough to wake Regina up, but with the way her entire body is aching and her eyes are burning from a general fatigue and lack of sleep, she doesn't believe she'll be able to help herself.

Seeing that she is already way behind on her beauty rest from working so much of late, she has no intention of setting an alarm for the morning. Dealing with a grumpy grandmother and more customers than she can keep track of during an insanely busy week has left her drained and quite mentally discombobulated, so she is in dire need of a lengthy recharge. She figures that since she is due the much needed catch-up it will be okay to slumber until her body is ready to rise, even if it is till noon. Hopefully Regina will understand. Ruby is pretty sure she will judging by the way her wife has continually chastised her for taxing her body to the limit.

If there were any other choice, Ruby would have gladly shrugged off her duties at the Diner, but because Granny has been short-staffed all week due an outbreak of flu in town, Ruby was roped into working double shifts every day, even on her scheduled days off. The absurdly long hours she's been putting in at the Diner means that she has been absent from home much more than she is used to or is comfortable with really, which not only has made for an irritable wife whose leash on her anger was getting all too short of late, but it also has left Ruby frustrated in more ways than one. Thinking back, she realizes that it has been almost two weeks since she has made love with her wife. Doing the math, she quickly calculates that it is the longest dry spell in their seven years together, five of which they have been married, and upon that realization she begins to ache almost painfully for the deeply intimate connection they share.

To be honest, Ruby is more than a little worried about Regina, and not just because their sex life has been lacking of late. For the vast majority of their relationship they have been happy together, or at least Ruby had thought so, but apparently her confidence is not congruent with reality anymore. Regina has been snapping at her, acting distant and cold one second and running red hot with a need for proximity the next, and the vicious mood swings are beginning to take a toll on Ruby, making her wonder what she did so wrong to make Regina act that way. It is hard to figure things out, though, when her head is almost always swirling from vertigo induced by the emotional rollercoaster she's been on the past month.

The only explanation Ruby is able to come up with is that Regina is punishing her for the intense argument they got into right around the time their troubles began. But seeing as she had swallowed her pride in order to grovel rather shamelessly (even though they were both to blame for the fight, Ruby had said something hurtful that she really didn't mean so she thought she owed her wife the profuse apology) and also with the fact that Regina caved pretty quickly, Ruby had thought she was forgiven. Perhaps she had been wrong. It would not be the first time. If that is indeed the case, with three consecutive days off as a reward for her hard work this week, Ruby plans to do whatever is necessary to relieve the strain on her marriage before the problem becomes fatal, and if there is anything she is sure of, it's that she wants to save her marriage.

For her, nothing has changed. She is still as madly in love with Regina as she was the day she walked down the aisle. Hell, if anything, she is more essentially entangled with her wife than she has ever been, for after so many years together, the bond between them has become so essential to her that if the unthinkable were to happen, she was not sure how she would cope. To Ruby, Regina is the counterbalance that she'd lacked for nearly all of her life, a unique person of strength who is confident enough to be the mate of a werewolf, and whose fierce passion can sate that wild animalistic hunger that is always gnawing in the pit of Ruby's stomach. Regina is a partner who is both bold enough to take what she wants, yet is giving with equal fervency, satisfying both wolf and woman in a way no one ever has. So if she were to lose Regina, she isn't sure she could ever find that kind of compatibility again, and the thought is terrifying.

Shaking herself from such discouraging considerations, Ruby plasters a smile on her face and proceeds to trudge through the remainder of her final shift. By the time midnight rolls around, she is dead on her feet, bleary eyed, and slurring her words, so Amalie, the only other waitress available to work that night, kindly volunteers to take over the nightly routine of stacking the chairs, wiping down the counters one last time, and then folding up enough napkins with forks, spoons, and knives to get started with on the following morning. With a grateful wave to the saintly woman, Ruby makes her way to the door, yelling a goodbye to her grandmother as a refreshing spike of energy hits her. Soon she will be home with her wife, and though she harbors a bit of trepidation at the work they have before them to mend their strained relationship, Ruby can hardly wait to see Regina's beautiful face once more.

Smiling wistfully, she grasps the handle to push the door open but is stopped by Granny's voice calling her name. She turns to see her gracefully aging grandmother moving out from the kitchen to stand behind the counter, a grim look on her face. Ruby's gut twists for some unexplainable reason, feeling kind of like she is being summoned to the principal's office for a paddling or as if Granny was about to give her yet another lecture about propriety because she had been flirting shamelessly with Regina when she came in for a few minutes earlier that evening.

"Come here," Granny waves her over, holding a small pile of freshly laundered towels in her hands.

When Ruby reaches the counter after having taken slow steps to delay the inevitable, she looks at Granny through slightly worried eyes. "What's up?" she asks, trying to hide her nervousness behind casual indifference. It doesn't work.

With raised brows indicating she has sensed Ruby's anxiety, Granny extends the towels out toward her, the foreboding expression still firmly in place. "I need you to take these to room 17."

Unable to help herself, Ruby whines petulantly at the request. Here she'd been all worried about Granny chewing her up one side and down the other for exchanging overtly obvious "sex-eyes" with Regina while working when all Granny wants is for her to deliver some towels to a room in the B&B. With how excessively eager Ruby is to get home, the trivial task seems as demeaning as it is aggravating.

"Seriously?" she responds, her frustration coloring her words as she pushes the towels back towards her grandmother. "Can't Amalie do that? It'll take two damn minutes. All I want to do right now is go home and take a bath then curl up in bed with Regina."

Sighing in a longsuffering yet almost sorrowful manner, Granny extends the towels back out. "You didn't hear me, girl," she says once more, this time more forcefully. "I _need_ you to take these to room 17." When Ruby begins to object again, Granny emphatically implores, " _please_ , Ruby, for once in your life just do as I ask!"

From the vexed look on Granny's face when she spoke, Ruby can tell that something is very wrong. The demand was far too pointed and deliberate for it to be work related, yet too vague to be personal. It is clear to Ruby that there is something Granny wants her to know but is unwilling to give voice to, something that she seems almost afraid for her to find out. As she contemplates what that might be, she nods without a word, takes the towels from her grandmother, and then begins to turn to walk toward the back of the diner where the partition separating the restaurant from the B&B is located.

But before she is halfway around, Granny grabs her forearm, clasping it almost painfully in order to stop her progress. Ruby looks back at her grandmother with startled, questioning eyes. "Gran?"

"I just...I want you to remember something, okay?" Granny says with more emotion than Ruby has seen from her in months. The way she trails off and furls her brow as if in pain scares the hell out of Ruby. Granny then gives Ruby's arm a gentle squeeze, her blue eyes glistening. "No matter what happens, no matter how much I complain, I love you and I'm proud of you. So don't ever let anyone or anything change you, 'cause no one is worth losing yourself for. Okay?"

Taken aback, Ruby is not quite sure how to respond for a moment. Granny has never been the kind of woman to be so open with her affection, and while Ruby appreciates the words more than she can say, even basks in them for just a moment, the warmth they elicit flees as quickly as it comes on. To have Granny baring her heart like that, without preamble or prompting, is extremely disconcerting.

Still, even though she feels slightly awkward and quite troubled, Ruby slides her arm out of Granny's grasp to take her strong, weathered hand. "I love you, too," she replies, returning the words of affection because she means them, and that despite her not understanding why her grandmother is behaving so strangely. "And I won't. I promise. I'll always be the same old Ruby you love to gripe at."

Granny chuckles slightly, though not enough to lift her dampened spirits, and after squeezing Ruby's hand, she releases it and then gives a dismissive nod. Her expression is tempered almost sadly by a weak smile. "Call me if you need me," she says, and then departs from the counter back into the kitchen.

Perplexed by the encounter, Ruby is unable to move for a minute. She stares toward the kitchen with worry for her grandmother, her stomach suddenly in knots as she wonders whether or not it is possible that Granny is sick and trying to hide it. As much as she would like to dismiss the notion as ludicrous, she would not put it past the stubborn old woman to conceal matters of her heath even when they are potentially life-threatening. Granny has always hated people fretting over her and hates doctors even more, so it is not beyond the realm of possibility that something is wrong with her. But surely if it was, Ruby would have picked up on it, and Granny has not shown any signs of illness at all. She is, Ruby thinks, as spry, quick witted, and ornery as ever.

Even if she is being delusional, Ruby is able to convince herself that her grandmother is okay, which helps the momentary paralysis to pass. With a shake of her head to clear it of any such thoughts that might be lingering, she then begins to walk to the rear of the diner. As she does so, her mind begins to whirl yet again concerning Granny's unspoken message, though this time it searches for alternative explanations.

None of the scenarios she concocts as plausible are good, ranging from some nefarious crime being perpetrated that she needs to intervene in to the equally terrible possibility that one of her acquaintances that was either married or in a committed relationship was on a secret rendezvous with their lover. Whatever the cause for Granny's request, Ruby finds herself dreading what she'll discover upon arriving at room 17.

After making her way into the B&B and then up the staircase leading to the upstairs suites, Ruby begins to walk down the hallway, her legs more like lead than flesh and bone as she passes rooms 11, 12, and 13. The closer she gets to room 17, the more her chest uncomfortably tightens and the bigger the lump in her throat grows so that it becomes harder for her to breathe. _What if I arrive there to find someone being murdered?_ she thinks, not liking the way her insides flip-flop like a Mexican jumping bean, further disturbing her already queasy stomach.

With her heart beating audibly in her ears, she finally reaches her objective and stops cold. With her sensitive ears, she is able to hear in vivid detail what is going on inside the room. It is impossible to misconstrue the tell-tale sounds of two lovers in the throes of passion for anything else, and from the sounds of it, they are both women and both thoroughly enjoying their tryst. As the panting from the inside the room grows louder and louder, Ruby hears the bed begin to protest against the overzealous exertions going on atop it.

Feeling a flush of embarrassment color her skin, she curses Granny for asking her to walk into this situation and then backs away from the door to lean against the far wall, still able to hear clearly since her ears are tuned to the fervent activities of the occupants of the room. Abashed at being an auditory witness to such an intimate moment, she begins to turn back down the hallway, but again is seized by immobility when ecstatic moaning ensues along with the frantic rustling of sheets which soon climaxes into throaty groans and shouts of rapture. In a split second of recognition, Ruby's whole world starts to spin violently off its axis. Mortification forgotten, her whole body coils up tight as a drum and her heart lurches in her chest as if it is about to burst and spill its lifeblood onto the floor.

Unable to hold on to the towels due to the way her hands are now quivering, they slide from her fingers and drop to the ground where they miraculously land in a perfectly vertical pile. It is an astonishing piece of luck, but Ruby is far too distressed to marvel at it.

Pressing her back against the wall as tightly as she can, she cannot help but listen intently to the aftermath of the lovemaking in room 17, for once her hearing is tuned in to a certain source, it picks up sounds that normal human ears cannot. As such, she is easily able to discern every word that is spoken between two of the four women she has trusted enough to implicitly allow access to her heart. As the women converse, Ruby feels so stricken by a surreal sense of disbelief that she slides down the wall to curl up into a ball at the base of it.

" _Damn_ ," she hears the first woman say, still breathing heavily from her exertions. " _As always, that was incredible! I wish that I could take you home with me to Killian sometime, 'cause it wouldn't matter to him if he was watching or participating. He'd be in heaven._ "

Hearing Hook's name only cements what Ruby already knows: one of the women is Emma. She shudders against the need to sob but heroically holds it in.

" _Don't be crass_ ," the second woman replies, her voice deeper and more husky. When Ruby hears her speak, her whole body begins to tremble, and try as she might she cannot stop it. " _I wouldn't touch your pirate with a ten foot pole. Come to think of it, I don't really know why I let you touch me._ "

Ruby hears a bit of laughter from Emma. " _It's because I'm irresistible._ "

" _Hardly_ ," the second woman retorts.

" _And yet you're here_."

At that, there is no response for a moment, and during that silent space, Ruby holds her breath to keep from emitting a half-hysterical moan that would surely alert the women inside to her presence.

The second woman then says, " _And as we've already established, I don't know why I'm here either._ "

" _It's 'cause you're bored_ ," Emma supplies, and as Ruby bites her bottom lip so hard it hurts, she hears the other woman scoff. " _Look, I get it. You love her, and believe me, I care about her, too. But there's a reason you're here, and if it's not because you're bored then maybe it's because there's something between us that's always been there and we were too afraid to explore it until now._ "

" _Don't be ridiculous_ ," protests the second woman, and Ruby can clearly hear that she is in complete disagreement with that statement. " _There is nothing between us of that nature and never will be. I don't love you, nor do you love me. I came to you because I was hurt and angry and idiotically lashing out, and I keep coming back because I'm a despicable person. This relationship serves only one purpose, Emma, don't make the mistake of reading more into it._ "

Ruby hears the sound of someone flopping back onto the bed with a sigh. She assumes it is Emma.

" _While I disagree that you're a despicable person_ ," Emma then replies, and Ruby hears more shuffling of sheets, " _you're right about one thing. I mean, obviously I'm attracted to you. That's nothing new, but besides the sex, which is fantastic by the way_ ," Ruby hears the other woman give a throaty chuckle and she has to clasp hand over her mouth to refrain from crying out, " _we're just not compatible. It took me a long time to come to terms with that, especially when you fell in love with someone else. But we would have been a_ _disaster in the end._ "

" _We are one_ _right now,_ " the second woman retorts, now sounding frustrated and very guilty, " _and an unmitigated one at that. Or have you forgotten what we're doing? Who we're hurting?_ "

" _I haven't forgotten,_ " says Emma with utmost certainty, and the way her voice shifts and strains as she talks suggests that she is standing and beginning to dress. " _But unlike you, my spouse is aware of what's going on. As the Dark One, he had an affair that I forgave, so this is his penance for that indiscretion._ "

" _I see_ ," growls the other woman. "S _o that's what this is for you. Payback._ "

Emma scoffs as she maneuvers across the room toward the door, the sound of her boots clopping on the floor indicating she is now fully dressed. " _Oh, don't even_ ," she says, sounding very close now, as if right on the other side of the door. " _It wasn't me who initiated this...whatever this is? You approached me that night after you guys fought. So don't get all pissy at me now._ "

" _I'm not_ ," sighs the second woman, who pauses and then says after a moment, " _I just...I'm not this person anymore, Emma. I hate what I'm doing, but I don't seem to be able to stop._ " She then begins moving, the clicking sound her steps create telling Ruby that she is wearing heels, which she'd already known.

" _Well, that's something I can't help you with_ ," Emma replies, not unkindly. It's clear she's sympathetic to the plight of her lover but not enough to feel bad about what's going on. " _Earth shattering orgasms I can do, but life advice is sadly beyond my purview._ "

Ruby hears the sound of a forlorn sigh as one of them runs a hand through their hair. Clicking heels reveal the second woman is drawing near to the door as well. " _Believe me,_ _I'm aware of your strengths as well as your deficiencies_ ," she says, " _but I suppose you are helping in a way with the orgasms._ " Her frustration seems to have passed as her last words are spoken with good humor, which tears at Ruby's heart. " _It is, after all, an area that has been lacking in my marriage of late._ "

Emma then chuckles with amusement, and since Ruby is already on the verge of weeping from what she has just heard, she is utterly helpless to defend herself against what comes next. The sounds of a gentle, almost affectionate goodbye kiss find her ears a moment later, and soon after she hears the smacking of lips parting. The kiss...the way it seemed so intimate and tender, hits her square in the chest, wrecking her already fragile heart like a sledgehammer pulverizing a brick. Unable to stop herself from reacting, she clutches at the shirt of her uniform as a shuddering gasp tears out of her mouth.

" _What was that?_ " Emma asks rhetorically having heard Ruby, and she swings the door open just in time to see Ruby scramble to her feet.

Feeling like her head and her heart are about to split in half, Ruby stands on shaky legs and then lifts her eyes to meet the shocked green ones of her long time friend. As Emma gapes in the doorway, Ruby watches with tears flooding her eyes as Regina shoulders her way past the shell-shocked Sheriff.

"Don't dawdle, Miss Swan, we mustn't be seen together and I'm already late getting home," she chastises as she steps out of the room, dressed in the same clothes she'd worn to the diner earlier.

It was all very clear now to Ruby that when Regina came in for coffee it wasn't her she was coming to visit but Emma. The realization causes her to falter, but she catches herself by bracing a hand against the wall and returns her focus to the women in the opened doorway of room 17 just in time to watch familiar brown eyes meet hers.

When Regina notices Ruby at last, she stops in place as if she has been frozen solid. All of the color rushes out out of her face, leaving her normally olive-toned skin pale and waxy. Like Emma, she too gapes as if dumbstruck at actually being caught.

Too devastated to speak, Ruby just stands there and stares, the supreme nature of the betrayal flooding her with shame and anger and a burning, aching, stabbing hurt that permeates her entire being. As she feels her body begin to tremble in earnest once more, a tiny droplet of water splashes against her leg which has been left bare by the skirt she'd worn to work, and she realizes vaguely that it is because of the way her knees are slightly bent as she holds herself up via the wall. A second teardrop then hits her skin, and immediately another follows it, and then another after that, and another and another and another, and as she at last becomes somewhat more aware of herself, she realizes that she's crying. Well, not crying really, for that would be a distortion of reality inadequate to describe the river of tears streaming down her face only to drip from her chin like a badly leaking faucet.

"R-Ruby..." Regina stutters, looking as out of sorts and unsure of what to do or say as Ruby feels.

"How long have you been out here?" Emma then asks, not giving Ruby time to respond and having somewhat recovered from the shock of being caught. Ruby notices that her eyes are narrowed and that there is a tension to her posture as if she is poised to strike. "Were you spying on us?"

That Emma actually has the gall to sound affronted right now angers Ruby so greatly that her face twists in barely restrained fury. "Was I…?" She trails off in disbelief, unable to process that one of her closest friends, a woman she has come to love as a sister, is standing in front of her having slept with her wife and is questioning her about her actions as if she were in the wrong. "How _dare_ you!" she begins, tone landing somewhere between threatening and anguished. "You're my _friend_! How could you do this to me?"

The words have an instant effect on Emma, who cringes and then stands there like a useless lump of flesh. She does not answer Ruby, which is much to her credit as well as her benefit, for had Ruby been provoked any more, she might have lost her temper, and with it, what little control she has over her alter ego. At the moment, her boiling mix of grief and rage is so profound that the wolf is crawling just beneath her skin, prowling the length and breadth of her host for a way out. It takes all of Ruby's self-control not to succumb to her inviting whispers as she promises to take care of everything if Ruby will just surrender for a moment. But Ruby knows what that means.

Clamping down on her lupine counterpart, she turns her attention to her adulterous wife. "And _you_ ," she growls, the wolf coming out in spite of Ruby's efforts to re-cage her. She watches with some measure of satisfaction as her wife flinches back like the words were a physical slap to her face. "I don't understand. Why? Do our vows mean nothing to you?"

When Regina says nothing, just stands there as Emma had like a statue devoid of the ability to speak or hear or feel, Ruby loses her head of steam. Deflating, she wraps her arms around herself, trying to stuff the pain back inside as she inquires miserably, "What did I do wrong? Was it something I said? Did I hurt you in some way that drove you away? Or am I just not enough anymore?" Again, Regina remains speechless.

"Answer me, damn you!" Ruby then explodes, barely able to see due to the moisture obscuring her vision. "Do you even want to be married to me anymore? _Tell me_!" Again Regina flinches but does not respond. Now on the verge of a breakdown, Ruby grasps at straws as to why her wife of five years would ruin their marriage in such a callous way. The only conclusion she can draw leaves her nearly breathless with dejection. Dreading the response the second the words pass her lips, Ruby asks, "Do you still love me?"

After waiting for at least ten seconds with no response, Ruby takes the silence as an admission that at the very least Regina is questioning her feelings. Ruby's legs give out and this time she cannot stop herself from falling. Dropping to her knees, she lays her face into her hands and sobs, her chest constricting so painfully that for a second she is afraid she might pass out. She realizes through the haze of her grief that what she is experiencing is the shattering of her heart as if it were comprised of a thousand glass panes and was being reduced into so much dust.

She isn't sure how long she weeps out her despair in the hallway, only that eventually she feels a feather-light touch on her shoulder.

"Ruby," Regina hesitantly says her name, having apparently found her voice and gathered enough courage to actually approach.

The physical contact from her wife, which once Ruby would have invited and cherished, instead prompts her to spring up to her feet. Using one hand to guide herself along the wall, she backs down the hallway in a rather reckless, stumbling manner.

"Don't. Just don't," she warns around another sob, holding out her other hand as a physical barrier to prevent Regina, who is tentatively following her, from getting too close.

Because all of the walls Ruby has taken down to let Regina into her heart were currently in the process of being frantically reassembled by her subconscious mind, she is left defenseless for the moment. With the wild gamut of feelings bombarding her, she feels as though she is one giant, raw nerve that has been left exposed and vulnerable to Regina's every facial tic and gesture, and it is why she feels the urgent need to get the hell out of there.

When Regina looks unwilling to heed the warning, Ruby feels she has no choice but to flee. Turning swiftly, she scurries over the short distance to the stairs and then bolts down them all the while ignoring the panicked cries of her name coming from her wife's crimson stained lips...lips that had been on Emma's, that had been _on_ Emma in places that Ruby did not want to acknowledge or even think about lest she lose her grip on reality.

With another strangled cry, she reaches the bottom of the stairs and then sprints for the front door of the B&B. Shucking off her shoes the instant she is outside, she begins to pant as the reality of what has just happened begins to catch up with her. She has to stop for a moment to in order to prevent hyperventilation. But her reprieve is short lived, for not five seconds later she hears the sounds of Regina's heels as she descends the stairs at a frantic pace. Ruby knows that she has to move. Digging her bare feet into the rough concrete of the sidewalk, she does what she does best: she runs.


	2. The Fall

**Notes** : Well. I didn't get any threats to tar and feather me, but I expect them soon enough. Here is part two and it sure hurt to write.

 **Standard Disclaimer** : The characters ain't mine, I'm just borrowing their strings for a while, so don't sue me please! Please point out any errors in grammar or spelling privately and I will correct them.

Chapter 2 - The Fall

When Ruby reaches her home some minutes later, she bursts through the front door, nearly knocking it off its hinges in her rush to get inside. Her sole purpose is to pack as many of her belongings as she can fit into a bag and leave before Regina arrives. Where she will go, she isn't sure, all she knows is that she can't stay at home, not with Regina there also, and since the house was her wife's long before it was hers, Ruby cannot find enough vindictiveness within herself to ask Regina to do the leaving. Instead, as always, it will be her who must fall on the sword, taking the blow that rightfully belonged to someone else. Her self-sacrificial nature is rearing its ugly head and it is the absolute worst time possible for it.

Once inside, she tears through the foyer and up the spiral staircase and then rushes down the hallway toward the bedroom she has shared with Regina for the past seven years. Regina...her wife. It hurts Ruby to even think the word. Once upon a time while in front of her friends and family she had pledged her life to Regina, promised to love and adore and be faithful to her no matter how terrible life got, or how badly they fought, or how diametrically opposed they were on some very important issues. When Ruby had spoken her vows, she'd meant them with all of her heart, still does, and it tears her up inside to think that Regina has so easily dismissed them as inconsequential.

She doesn't think she is being unfair in her diagnosis of her wife's intimate betrayal, for she cannot conceive of any possible scenario in which Regina was unaware of what she was doing. There are few people Ruby knows to be more intelligent and keenly aware of the consequences of her actions than Regina is, so in the process of breaking her vows, she had to have acted willingly with full awareness of the potential cost should she be discovered. Because they had discussed the topic many years before, Regina is cognizant of how Ruby feels about cheating. In no uncertain terms, she had told her then fiance that adultery was something she could not forgive, and yet Regina still chose to fall into bed with Emma. With that being the case, Ruby could only conclude that her wife didn't think losing her was too great a risk to forgo indulging in a sordid affair that was for all intents and purposes purely physical. That is why Ruby had questioned Regina as she had by asking if she even loved her anymore.

The lack of a response Ruby received served as ample confirmation that her hasty analysis of the situation was accurate. Being confronted by the tacit truth that her wife no longer loved her had hurt far more than the betrayal she felt from the affair, and to be honest, she is still reeling from it. It is difficult to process the almost fathomless reality that she had awakened that morning still believing her wife loved her when now she knew that assumption to have been false, and it makes her feel like a horribly naive fool.

When Ruby had first started dating Regina, there were a number of her friends who had tried to warn her against getting into a relationship with the former Queen, begging her to reconsider because they fully believed Regina was not quite so reformed as she would like people to believe. Inevitably, they told her, Regina would be the cause of great pain for her either directly or indirectly. But she had been too swept up in the exciting emotions Regina brought out in her to listen, too consumed by the flames of passion for them to be put out. Now she is burning once more, but this time it is a fire that is charring and destructive rather than the kind that creates warmth and new life, and as she nears the doorway of her bedroom, Ruby wonders if there will be anything left of her when it is finally put out or if it will utterly reduce her ash and cinders.

Upon entering the bedroom a few seconds later, she stops dead in her tracks. Regina is already home and waiting for her by the bed, having obviously used magic to transport herself from the B&B in order to set up an ambush. The effort she has gone to in order to prevent Ruby from leaving is not at all appreciated. Standing there in front of the bed, Regina looks at her with imploring brown eyes that are swimming with so much regret and fear that she cannot help but be affected, and even though Regina has brought such misery upon herself, Ruby hates to see her suffering as she is right now. Yet even though a part of Ruby wants to run to her wife, take her in her arms and comfort away the pain, she cannot find room in her heart for such forgiveness or mercy; it is still full to overflowing with anguish, hurt, and betrayal.

"I have nothing to say to you," she tells her distraught wife, sniffling pathetically as if in direct protest to her firm assertion. Without meeting Regina's eyes again, she marches straight to the closet where she harshly flings open the door and then steps inside. As she grabs the biggest of her gym bags she can lay hands on, she hears Regina follow her inside.

"Ruby, please, don't do this," Regina pleads, her voice strained with the effort not to cry as she worries her hands in front of her. After so many years together, Ruby is well acquainted with every tone, note, and inflection of Regina's voice, so even if she was not currently watching the emotions playing all over her face out of the corner of her eye, she could very easily recognize her wife's state of distress. "It meant nothing. I swear."

Turning halfway, Ruby frowns. "I don't believe that," she counters, somehow able to stay relatively calm in what might well be the most disastrously heartrending moment of her life. Perhaps she is already entering into that stage of detached numbness that will allow her to function until reality at last crashes down upon her. "Seemed to mean a whole lot when you were crying out her name." At Regina's half-sob, half-gasp, Ruby's eyes narrow. The words had hurt so she wants to drive the knife deeper. "Tell me, is she better than me? Does she taste better? Feel better? Make you cum in ways I can't?"

"Ruby...God, no," Regina protests in obvious agony.

Ruby does not feel sorry for her, rather the opposite. Right now, she wants to hurt Regina as much as Regina has hurt her. "Then what is it?" she presses. "What is so lacking in me that you had to turn to Emma to get it? Am I defective somehow? Not interesting enough or fun enough in sack? Or maybe I'm just too dumb to satisfy an intellectual giant like yourself. Maybe it's even because you finally realized that I'm beneath you...being a peasant and all." As Regina moans in barely restrained anguish, Ruby shakes her head dolefully. "And to think that I had actually deluded myself into believing things were good between us. I mean, Jesus Christ...I am...was...am... _so_ in love with you. _Stupid_ in love with you. But how could I have been so blind?"

As if thinking about approaching, Regina steps forward with one foot before instantly withdrawing it after Ruby flinches back. "You're not defective, sweetheart," she tries to explain. In a way Ruby hears it, but in a way she doesn't. "There is nothing wrong with you. _Nothing_. And if either of us is beneath the other, it is me. I don't deserve you, Ruby, and I never have. If you'll recall, I made that clear when we got together."

Ruby sneers angrily. "So this is my fault then for being a moron and trusting you?"

"No," Regina replies, wincing, "that's not what I'm saying at all. Please don't blame yourself for this. You did nothing wrong. When you took a chance on me and loved me, you gave me the greatest gift I've ever received aside from Henry. That part of you is beautiful and perfect and I _hate_ that I've made you question it. I _hate_ that I've done to you what my mother did to me."

"Then why did you do it?" Ruby asks, her voice barely a whisper. She is desperate for any kind of explanation that can make this better but knows that she will not get one. There is nothing Regina can say to assuage the soul-sucking hurt she is feeling at the moment.

Biting at her bottom lip, Regina winds her arms around her own waist, shriveling into herself so that she appears smaller than Ruby has ever seen her. "I don't know why I...Ruby, I don't," she answers, imploring Ruby to understand, and Ruby does to a point. If nothing else she believes that Regina is genuinely confused as to why she has been behaving as she is and thus is having difficulty explaining her actions to herself. "We had that fight, and I was so angry, so out of control. But you've said much worse to me and I to you, so I honestly don't know where it came from. If I did I would have fixed it...I would have stopped it. I swear to God, I never set out to hurt you. It just happened. I don't know how else to put it. It just happened."

Her face twisting in pain, Ruby runs a shaky hand through her hair and then pulls at the strands near her temple until it hurts. The physical pain is a distraction from the internal turmoil that is threatening to devour her whole.

"Then why did it have to be with Emma?" she begins, radiating pain and shame. "Why her, Regina?! I know you're aware that half the town thought you guys were sleeping together before we started dating, and you also know that other than Snow, she is my best friend. And now you've not only trashed our marriage but my friendship with Emma and my reputation as well. Everyone will think that this has been going on behind my back for years... _years_ , Regina! So, I can tell you this: you should have just ripped my heart out and crushed it with your own bare hands for all the good your intentions did."

"I know," Regina cries, bringing her fingers up to grasp the pendant of her necklace, an anniversary present Ruby had given her not three months ago, back when they were still happy. "I'm _so_ sorry."

Scoffing, Ruby swipes a line of tears away from her cheeks and then turns back to her task. After snatching a few t-shirts and pairs of jeans from their hangars she then proceeds to stuff them into her bag before shouldering past a ruined looking Regina. She does not offer any comfort. Once back in the bedroom, she hurries to the dresser where she rifles through the drawers to get a few pairs of underwear and socks to last her the next few days. The rest, she decides, she will buy or borrow from Granny, Mary Margaret, Belle, Mulan, Victor, or whoever her subconscious brain decides to trust enough to seek shelter with.

Having accomplished that task without further incident, she turns to the door to see Regina waiting for her in the doorway, effectively blocking her from leaving. Clever woman that she is, she had moved without Ruby hearing by slipping off her pumps in order to dampen her footsteps.

"Get out of my way," Ruby growls, now thoroughly annoyed.

Regina does not budge. Ruby recognizes the stance she is in, legs spread slightly apart, hands on her hips...she is dug in for a fight. "I won't," she answers firmly, red faced with splotchy make-up. Tears are still swimming at her eyelids. "Not until we fix this."

"There is no fixing this," Ruby says, meaning those words in the temporary as she is not at all certain about whether they will remain true down the road. Despite her warnings to Regina before they married that any marital indiscretion would end things for good, she loves the woman far too much to be so definitive in her own mind. But Regina does not need to know that. It's a petty tactic, but Ruby is feeling very petty at the moment.

"You don't mean that," Regina replies, her stance wavering at the shock of hearing such a final declaration on the state of their relationship. It is clearly as painful for her to hear as it was for Ruby to say. "I love you, Ruby...only you. I know it doesn't seem like it, but that has not changed for me. I still want to spend the rest of my life with you, so please don't leave."

Stepping forward, emboldened by her righteous anger, Ruby gets in her wife's face, feeling wounded and cornered – a bad combination for a werewolf. She's quite sure her eyes flash yellow as she draws in to Regina's personal space due to the way her wife's eyes widen and she draws back her hand, preparing to use magic to defend herself if necessary.

"Too bad," Ruby spits out into Regina's face, the force of her words shifting a length of her ebony hair. "You should have thought about that before you opened your legs for another woman."

Holding her hands up, Regina's expression changes once more into an earnest pleading. "You're right. What I did was unforgivable. But I swear on all I hold dear that I don't love Emma. I don't want her, Ruby, I want you. I am and still want to be your wife, and I will do whatever I have to do to fix this, so _please_ give me a chance. I know I don't deserve it, but I'm asking it of you anyway. I love you too much to lose you. _Please_ , Ruby, don't throw our marriage away because of my stupidity."

"I'm not throwing anything away, _Regina_ ," says Ruby, still furious, though that particular emotion has faded into a slowly burning ember. Her hurt, however, remains acute. "You did that all on your own. But I haven't made any decisions. Not yet, anyway. I can't talk to you right now, though, not when I can barely look at you. So please step out of the way before I make you."

At the last sentence, Ruby squares her shoulders and flexes her jaw muscles, making it clear to Regina that she is not in the mood to bandy about anymore. More than ever, the need to flee is pressing down on her until she feels like a wolf that has been caged for far too long, which is appropriate since her alter ego is emanating similar though much more dangerous feelings of entrapment. If Regina does not move, Ruby is sure the wolf will come out to protect her other half, and if that happens, things will get ugly.

Thankfully, seeing that there is no talking things out right now, Regina's stubbornness crumbles and she turns sideways so that Ruby can pass by her. As Ruby does so, she pauses, glancing down at her wife. Staring mournfully into those pools of rich chocolate she loves so much, she thinks about how looking into Regina's eyes always betrayed what was on her mind, or at least used to. Somehow Ruby had missed all the signs that were pointing to her having an affair, and looking back now, they were so clear, what with the mood swings and the way Regina pushed her away and pulled her back in like a human yo-yo. How could she have missed it? And yet she did.

In that moment, Ruby finds herself tragically exemplifying the age old adage: love is blind.

"I don't want to leave without saying at least this," she then says, seeing a glimmer of hope in Regina's eyes. Ruby doesn't want to squash it because she needs at least one of them to remain hopeful that they can clean up the mess Regina has made. "I love you. I always will." Regina gasps, covering her mouth with her hand as tears once more begin to stream down her cheeks. "But you hurt me and you broke us and you betrayed my trust and I don't know if any of it can be fixed. Only time will tell. So for now, I have to leave. I can't stay here."

And with those parting words, Ruby readjusts the strap of her gym bag, turns and then begins to walk away. Her eyes blur with renewed tears with each step, feeling like she is leaving the best part of herself behind, and as she maneuvers down the hallways she vaguely hears Regina following behind her, clearly distressed due to her rapidly increasing heart rate and frantic breathing. Hurt as she is, Ruby cannot bring herself to care. As if the five years of of matrimony during which they had shared so much love and made so many memories meant absolutely nothing, Regina has cast everything aside for a temporary pleasure that she has twice admitted meant nothing.

Though it would be very easy to doubt the veracity of those assertions, deep down Ruby believes that the affair was, as Regina insists, purely physical, though she cannot say the same for Emma. Despite the her agreement with Regina earlier, Ruby is pretty sure that Emma was lying to cover up the fact that her feelings were hurt by Regina's quick dismissal. And while it somewhat comforts Ruby to know Regina has not given her heart away to Emma, it is not enough to help her get past her hurt...not yet, anyway and maybe not ever. Even so, regardless of whether or not she can ever forgive her wife for this betrayal, her friendship with Emma is over, and that is another level of pain adding to the crushing sense of loss that is threatening to break Ruby into a thousand tiny pieces which could never in a lifetime be put back together.

It is nearly unthinkable that Emma would do something so callously hurtful to someone she claims to care for, but then Ruby remembers that ever since becoming the Dark One for a while, the Savior has possessed a dark streak that makes itself known on occasion. Once Ruby had caught Emma staring darkly at a woman who had rather blatantly checked Killian out, and it was not a look of disapproval, but one full of malicious intent. Emma smothered it behind an easy smile within moments, but Ruby would never forget the way Emma's blue eyes had turned cold and vicious.

There are some things, Ruby had supposed, that even True Love can't fix, and while Killian's love for Emma had broken the Curse, some of the dagger's darkness remained behind in Emma. At least that's what Ruby chose to believe, because if the alternative is true and Emma had done this all on her own without any influence from that darkness then she was not the woman Ruby had thought she was. And that was as dangerous an implication as it was tragic.

"Ruby, please," Regina nearly begs once more as they near the stairs, the reality that Ruby was really leaving her having clearly reignited a desperation to cling to something that was currently falling apart. "Please don't leave. Stay. Talk to me. Scream at me for the rest of the night if you like, just _please_ don't walk out that door because I don't think I could take it."

Ruby's chest constricts at the hoarse, almost maddeningly panicked quality to her wife's voice. It is abundantly clear that Regina is now feeling the full weight of what she has done pressing in on her from all direction and is suitably being crushed by unremitting waves guilt. Despite her wife's recalcitrance and her own fervent desire that it not be true, Ruby cannot shake the gnawing sickness in her stomach that indicates her subconscious belief that her marriage is over. The thought that her marriage may end is a terrible one, and it mixes with the realization that her leaving will break Regina.

For a moment, Ruby is assailed by a guilt she should not be feeling, though she quickly shakes it off upon remembering what she'd heard in room 17. The sounds of her wife and her friend stabbing her in the back will likely never be completely drowned out, no matter how much time passes and how many other memories she tries to replace them with. It is part of the reason she feels compelled to leave, for although she had not said as much to Regina, she knows that staying in this house together, even if sleeping in different rooms, will require that they interact from time to time. In doing so, Ruby will begin to hear the sounds again, accompanied by painful imaginings as to what Regina's face had looked like when Emma was going down on her, and whether or not it looked the same as when it was her instead.

In essence, she realizes that what Regina has done is to perhaps irreparably tarnish the most pure relationship she has been in since Peter died, and though it was not pure in the sense that they are perfect people, it was in that she had once believed them to be perfect for each other. As it is, she is currently in enough control of her faculties to understand that if she is forced to fully confront that right now, she might degenerate in way that would not only be dangerous for herself, Regina, and Emma, but for all of Storybrooke as well. Her wolf is perilously close to taking control, so she can't risk exposing herself to more heartache, for the weaker she becomes the more the wolf overwhelms her will.

Nearing the stairs, she replies without turning back, "As I said, you should have thought about that before you f..." she pauses, her voice catching on the word she wants to say, knowing that using it will elicit the very same thoughts she was running away from, thoughts that will drive her crazy if allowed purchase in her mind. She can't afford to think about Regina writhing in bed with Emma right now. If she does, her wolf will demand retribution, and although Emma has betrayed their friendship in the worst way possible, Ruby does not want any harm to come to her. No matter how vile what she and Regina have done is, Emma is needed in town.

Ruby, however, is not. To Storybrooke in general, she is expendable, unnecessary, Regina's pet wolf slash personal cheering section and the pretty trophy wife that the Mayor brings out to proudly flaunt when people start to forget that she had landed the hottest piece of ass in the state of Maine. Compared to everyone else, Ruby considers herself worth very little, a long standing insecurity that without meaning to Regina has confirmed via her affair. After all, if Ruby was as important to Regina as has been stated time and again during intimate moments, why had she so casually tossed her away for someone else, a woman she had secretly proclaimed only a month ago to be "less tall, less beautiful, less caring, less kind, less interesting, and just lesser than you in general." In retrospect, it seems as if those words were more lies meant to deflect suspicions from what was really going on between her and Emma.

 _Was it really so easy for her to deceive me?_ Ruby thinks bitterly. _Or am I really just that easily deceived?_

If so, it is incomprehensible that she has been so very daft. She feels like such a stupid little girl. How many times had she made love to Regina during that time frame in which she was lost in her love for her wife while Regina was thinking about how she'd rather it be Emma's fingers doing delicious things to her body or Emma's face buried between her legs?

All of the sudden, Ruby feels sick. Upon reaching the staircase, she curses and leans heavily upon the bannister, trying to calm herself enough to keep from vomiting all over the pristine wooden floors of her home. Her home...is it even her home anymore? "Oh, God, I have to get out of here right now!" she blurts out, straightening sharply under the tightening tension of her anxiety. Her fight or flight response is firmly in flight mode now, so she extends her foot out to take the first step.

Yet before she can, Regina's hand shoots out to grab at her elbow. "No!" her wife shouts, frantic now to stall Ruby in any way she can.

But the action meant only to prevent Ruby from leaving has an altogether different outcome. With the violence of Regina's movement, the impact causes her foot to land awkwardly on the first step and as a result her ankle twists beneath her weight. Realizing what is about to happen, the synapses in her brain begin to fire rapidly, calculating that because of the downward pitch she is falling in, she is likely to tumble head over heel all the way down the spiral staircase and land on her head. The velocity of the fall combined with the hardwood floor awaiting her impact does not leave much room for a desirable outcome. Almost as if disconnected from reality, she realizes that she is very likely about to die.

Time seems to slow down to a crawl in that moment as Ruby, out of control and unable to stop what is about to happen, begins to fall in earnest. As gravity begins to do its awful work, her eyes widen and she looks back over her shoulder, hoping to catch a glimpse of Regina's face, wanting more than anything for that to be the last thing she sees on this earth. No matter how hurt she is, no matter what Regina has done to wreck their happiness, she is still the love of Ruby's life, and there is no one else that she wants to be in her thoughts and in her heart as she experiences what might very well be the last moments of her life.

As she tilts slightly on the way down, Ruby is able to catch Regina's face as it transforms into an expression of such horror that her heart clenches for the pain she is about to have to live through. Meanwhile, at the exact same time, she hears the door downstairs burst open only for it to be revealed that it is Emma by the way the blonde home-wrecker immediately begins calling for Regina.

It is literally the worst moment of Ruby's life. Not only is her marriage in ruins and not only is she about to tumble to her death, but her wife's brazen lover has chosen that exact moment to pay a very unwelcome visit to their home. Were it not for the fact that she had no time at all with which to process the additional information, she might have laughed at the absurdity.

As it is, though, Ruby is unable to even brace herself as the first part of her body collides with the stairs. It is her knee, which crashes painfully into the edge of the second step down, sending a jolt of pain shooting through her leg as she hears an audible crack. Her mind is able to dimly understand the fact that her kneecap has been fractured by the impact. Grunting, she tries to raise her hands to stop herself from falling further, but before she can she is pitching forward once more, doomed to be an unwilling passenger on the bonebreaking ride her body is about to take. When her momentum at last carries her inexorably and violently downward, her breath catches and her heart begins to beat erratically.

Feeling her body go parallel to the stairs, the fall begins to accelerate, and in a mere moment it reaches such an incredible speed that no more than a second passes after her knee hits that her forehead is smashing into the fourth step down. Her vision blurs. It all goes by in a whirl after that.

Tumbling like a rag-doll, she rolls down the staircase, her gym bag flying from around her arm to land God knows where and her body impacting nearly every stair on the way down. And although she is semi-conscious, her senses are so hyperactive from the pain that she is able to feel as several fingers are broken, her left wrist is hyper-extended, and many ribs are cracked. Pain swiftly becomes her new state of being in this rapid plunge down a staircase she has traversed hundreds of times in the past, and when she reaches the end of her brief, violent, and painful journey, she feels every joule of energy as she smashes into the floor, knees first, then elbows, and finally her head. With an impact so vicious that it wrenches her neck, her temple is crushed against the hardwood floors of the foyer. She goes still.

The only thing Ruby can hear as her vision blackens is the terrible sound of Regina screaming, and as she feels a pool of warm blood begin to seep out from beneath her head, she hopes that her wife remembers her words as she'd passed by in their bedroom, because it would really suck to die knowing Regina believed she didn't love her anymore. With her last bit of strength, Ruby tries to talk in order to relay the words of reassurance to Regina, but realizes that she cannot move her tongue, her jaw, or any other part of her anatomy. Instead, all that comes of her effort is a pathetic, gurgling groan.

Unable to hold out anymore against the rapidly approaching draw of unconsciousness, Ruby simply surrenders, and as oblivion begins to claim her, a thousand recollections of Regina flit through her mind in a last desperate attempt by her brain to find a reason to keep on living. As the shifting of images slows to a stop, a memory of her wedding day comes to the forefront of her mind. Projected against the void as if some kind of moribund movie presentation, she watches as Regina recites her vows, resplendent in a sharp black and white custom made dress that sparkles in the sunset while her silky raven locks are styled into an immaculate bun. She gazes up into Ruby's eyes as if she were the whole world and says, "I love you, Ruby Lucas, now and forever. To the moon and back."

Fading away into the blackness of the void, it is that image and those words that Ruby clings to as the cold grip of oblivion swallows her up, burying her under a mountain of darkness. Just like that, she slips away from the confines of existence and knows no more.


End file.
